Hearing-Impaired/Accessibility

[ihbar]

There are a group of deaf individuals at the school I attend. I think it would be great if we could reach out to them and other hearing impaired individuals and get them involved in the process as well. Some people with ASL knowledge would be handy to interpret. Functionalizing the GA meetings to include this would probably require some conferral with the facilitation WG.

Other accessibility issues to consider are some concerns which were brought up at the first GA in Townsend park. That is, people who have mobility handicaps, people in nursing homes, or otherwise unable/find it difficult to attend the GA's. Provided the outreach happens, accessibility might come up at one point or another for facilitation purposes. Namely, the one issue I thought of are the stairs at the entrance to GSCA. It is probably a good idea to keep these things in mind as we continue to build momentum across the whole population of Albany.

[Emma]

I am fluent in ASL & experienced as an interpreter (though not in the recent past). I'm on the facilitation & logistics working group and will mention this at the meeting tonight.

If there's anyone else out there who'd tag-team with me, I'd be willing to offer interpreting services at the GA as long as I'm *also* there as a participant - Usually interpreters are expected to be non-entities to avoid bias etc, but we're flipping plenty of "usually"s on their heads and I think we can manage this one as well.

Emma

[Emma]

It is worth noting that the number of people in the capital district for whom ASL is their primary language is extremely small. The Deaf Community here is TINY. So it does not seem to me a good use of resources to have interpreters at all events by default. We can make an effort to have ASL interpreting available by request.

We should definitely be looking at other disability access issues. The population of wheelchair users or blind folks, etc, are not nearly so disproportionately small (some are larger than average). The location & logistics sub-working-group will be looking at this for our future venues.

[denmarkvesey]

We need to address this the GSCA is not good for this, not ADA accessible, hopefully this will be solved once we actually occupy something. I know people whom, know how to sign and do so professionally as well.

[denmarkvesey]

IF THIS IS 99% WE NEED TO CONSIDER PEOPLE WITH DISABILITES THEY ARE SEGREGATED IN OUR COMMUNITY AND OPENLY DISCRIMINATED AGAINST FOR NO REASON LIKE AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE SOUTH IN THE 50's

[tooladder]

I'm deaf, and sign but also talk. I'd really love to hook up with deaf at the event. I live about 10 car lengths from the park too. I'll be watching for some flyin hands

[Emma]

folks - I've been really really busy with some other aspects of organizing this. I could interpret part of teh GA this week, but 1) I'd need at least one partner and probably two, and 2) I don't know that we have spotlight capabilities and it will get dark right in the middle.
Maybe we can arrange it for another meeting soon? I am happy to help, but I'm not going to take on organizing this part. If someone organizes, it, keep me informed & I'm happy to interpret when I'm available. I'll also leave my phone # with Outreach or whoever staffs whatever welcome table we have at the site, and they can text me if someone Deaf shows up and asks about interpreting.